In the last years we have developed a platform for
the realization of embodied (conversational)
agents, in a distributed logic programming
framework. In this paper we will present an
overview of our work, by discussing the
requirements that acted as our guidelines for
design decisions during development, some of the
applications that have served as target
demonstrators for developing and testing new
functionality, and the (distributed logic
programming) technology which we used for the
realization of the platform and the implementation
of our STEP scripting language.
Although the focus of our paper will primarily be
our own DLP+X3D platform, we believe that our
discussion along the perspectives of requirements,
applications and technology might be more generally
worthwhile in establishing the relative merits of
the operational use of ECA-technology. At the end
of this paper, we will moreover provide some hints
of how to approach the experimental validation of
the (possible) benefits of embodied conversational
agents in user applications
